Your answer for the smallest integer with the letter "a" in it is misleading or wrong.

One Hundred And One ...

8S3, Kettlethorpe High School

We also think that one hundred And one is smaller than one thousand

Bradley Clark, bradclark10@hotmail.com

We believe that one hundred and one is the smallest number with an a in it.

Mark, Manor School

I have always taught students that the and is only used for decimals. One hundred and one would be 100.1. 101 would be One hundred one. This would make 1000 the correct answer.

John and A2 maths, Milton Keynes

We think the answer is 8 because it has an "a" in it

Debs, Bognor Regis CC

My year 9 group also said "ate" (as did my teaching assistant.)As for One hundred AND one , the AND is a connective NOT a number. We had fun with this today and would like to see more literacy and maths starters especially since we have a lot of EAL students.

Mr. Mauceri, Aylesford School - Sports College, Kent, UK

If "and" is not allowed in one hundred "and" one then it should not be allowed in thous"and" either!

Mary, Qatar

How can you say the word thousand, without the "and" at the end, it doesn't make sense...... its part of the word, I think that both can be correct in this instance, using and is perfectly acceptable, its used world wide

Kirsty, 8B1

Kirsty says that it is a thousand because "and" isn't a number.

Paul Boothroyd, Whitehaven

Just returned to this problem, and noticed the "...a word...", I must have been persuaded by my class last year.

M. Flint and 7H, Hagley Park Sports College

We think it's 101 as 'and' is essential to the number when written down.

Mr Macarthur,

How about one and ten tenths?

Transum,

Here’s a variation on this theme:

Teacher: “I challenge you all to see who can come up with the most words that don’t contain the letters A, B or C in 30 seconds. Go!”

101 Is "One Hundred One" There is no and... Common misconception... Therefore One Thousand is the correct answer.

Irene, Harrow, Beijing

A Hundred!

class 1P5, Holyrood Sec School Glasgow

We at Holyrood (mrs O'hagan's class),think this is a bit of a 'scam'..in otherwords a bit of a trick question! We like 'ate' but are divided between one thousand, and one hundred and one.

Craigdhu Primary, P6/7

We believe that one hundred and one is the correct answer since you asked for the word with 'a' in it.

11n5, Sleaford

We've actually spent more time discussing everyone's comments rather than the answer. It was jolly good fun!

Mr Smith + whole lot of clever students in set 5., Derby

It got my class thinking! All was sure that it was: 'One hundred AND one'Very good starters to get you thinking and debate about!

Year 7, Vale of Catmose College, Oakham

Four in French, Quatre

Steve, Verdin High

The question says "word", not "words" therefore "thousand" must be the answer as "hundred and one" is three words.

Mr Crawshaw, St George's College, Sleaford

What about -(-1)"Negative, negative one"

Mr Mirza, Colne Park High School

Our answer was 'Thousand' as we felt one hundred and one connects one hundred with one which is not a value. We read 101 as one hundred one. Thanks

Mr Crawshaw, St George's College of Technology, Sleaford

A young Polish student came up with the answer "dwa", which is "two" in Polish.This got me thinking about the cross-curricular possibilities for nthis starter. In French, the answer is "quatre" (4), in German "acht" (8) and in Spanish "cuatro" (4).Which languages give the smallest positive answer?Bosnian and Croatian each have "jedan" for "one". In Czech, it's "jedna"Slovenian (ena), Indonesian (satu), Portuguese (uma) and Basque (bat) also have words for "one" with an "a" in them.Finnish (kaksi) and Swedish (twa) are like Polish, having an "a" in their word for "two".English seems to be the only language I could find with no such number until "thousand". The next highest was Danish, which did not have a number with an "a" in it until "atten" (18)I have more, but fear most lost interest long ago!!

St. Mary's Year 8, Cambridge

We think that it is One hundred And one. There were lots of posibilities like one thousAnd... we think And should be allowed because the number doesn't work without it!

Milo, BSM Muscat Oman

we think it is most definitely 8/'ate' and so did the rest of year 15

Class 6C, Tamworth

We think that a thousand is the most sensible answer.

Mr. Gauley, Gainesville Elementary School

One hundred and 0ne is not a correct statement. The "and" suggests a decimal point in the standard form of the number. At least that is what I have always taught my students.

Kristin Bare, Woodhill Elementary

And is not a numberthe proper way to say 101 is "one hundred one"the answer is a thousAnd.

Jordan Hollins, Uttoxeter

I think it is "A " because in algebra a stands for a number so A say it's A.

A Guess, A School

It can't be 101, because on google type in "101 in words" and it comes up with one hundred one, therefore its one thousand.

8MaP3, Park Community School

This has produced much discussion and has provided valuable literacy input.

Mr Walker, Baxter College

SquAre root of one?

Mr Ireland, 5I Maths, Balsall Common

We had a raging debate in our class about which one was correct - 101 or 1000. We'll need to put it to the vote tomorrow I think!

Miss Look, 5th Grade Math Class

We believe the answer is one thousand. It can't be one hundrend and one, because and is NOT a number.

Chris Poole, SLSSC, Exeter

Googling "hundred and one" gave me 3,260,000 hits. Googling "hundred one" gave 340,000 hits. Which may be why there's a book and film called "[The] Hundred AND one Dalmations". You can argue the answer is 'thousand' because you asked for 'a word', not 'words', but it's a bit weird to say that AND isn't part of the number 'hundred and one'. It just is.

Mr Jones And 7V1, King Alfred's Wantage

We believe that it is 'One Thousand' as, although 'One Hundred and One' has an 'a' in it, the 'and' is not part of the number.Also in French it would be 4, or quatre.

9g1, Priory School, Shrewsbury

We really don't think much of the question. We like more definite answers.

7Y2, St Edmund Arrowsmith (wigan)

Half of our class think it is 101 and the other half think its 1000.

Emily,

It is a thousAnd because one hundred and one is a decimal and and is not a number.

Brenda, California

You can't count one hundred and one, because in math "and" represents a decimal and that would not be a whole number.

Mr Besgrove, Little Ilford School

One hundred and one is the correct answer... Year 7 Little Ilford School, London.

It is one thousand because one hundred one does not have the word "and" in it. It is a math misconception to use the word "and".

Maria, Indiana

The number 101, correctly written is 'one hundred one'. there is not an 'and' so one thousand must be correct.

Andrea, Tokyo

In the UK, we generally say one hundred and one.

9ma3, Attleborough High School

We had a vote and decided it should be thousand because when you write one hundred and one in numbers you do not wrtite the and.

Jon Chamberlain, Sty Peter And St Pauls Primary School

Would you write the letter 'A' when you write a thousand in numbers then?!?I would allow one hundred and 1 or a thousand I think! (Unless I tell my year 4 class that the word and doesn't count!).

7t3, MR. DRYDEN YEAR 7, HOMEWOOD

Cifra, zero in Italianshunya, zero in Hindiwahid , one for Arabic.

Mr Sowler, 11-16

101 is a whole number, it just happens to require a few words to say it. In the UK it is correct to say and write it as 'one hundred and one' and it would be incorrect to say or write it as 'one hundred one.' In the US it seems the opposite is true!

Miss Robson And Mr Field's Year 7 Class, The Hazeley Academy

We think that if "one hundred And one" is a correct answer, "A hundred" should also be correct, and smaller, therefore the correct answer.

Mr Shepherd, Chryston High School

We took a class vote and voted that one thousand should be the correct answer. One hundred and one was too much of a trick! ( even though Mr Shepherd thought it was one hundred and one!).

Charles Jennings, Year 5 International, SIS @ BDNC, Vietnam

We think it could be "A hundred."This is smaller than one hundred and one.

9TK, Ramsden Hall School

It was tricky, but we say THOUSAND!!!

Team 24, Rio Real School, California

Team 24 voted that "and" is not a number so the answer is one thousand.

Y8 Reepham High,

edna is bulgarian for one.

Yr8, Quest Academy

We thought it might be one hundred and one but then we decided that because 'and' is a connector not a number is must be one thousand.

Diana Gillinder And Y6, Langton Green Y6

One Squared.

Davis, England

Did you know twenty-one thousand is the smallest number you can make using only three words.

Christopher Allan, Twitter @CDAXY

Hundred and one after which they all contain 'a' up to X (but what is X ?).

Transum,

206 is the smallest number that when written in words contains all five vowels exactly once:

TWO HUNDRED AND SIX

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Answers

Some think the answer is a thousand,
others think one hundred and one.
(see comments above)

If you would like to read more about similar questions see the Wikipedia page Ban Number and the Mathworld external links at the bottom of that page.

Idea for Teacher: Another way to present this idea is to challenge pupils to write down in one minute as many words as possible that do not contain the letter A . You can easily win this competition by writing down one, two, three, four etc which is much easier to do!

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Hello World

You are buying a (driverless) car. One vehicle is programmed to save as many lives as possible in a collision. Another promises to prioritize the lives of its passengers. Which do you choose?

Welcome to the age of the algorithm, the story of a not-too-distant future where machines rule supreme, making important decisions – in healthcare, transport, finance, security, what we watch, where we go even who we send to prison. So how much should we rely on them? What kind of future do we want?

Hannah Fry takes us on a tour of the good, the bad and the downright ugly of the algorithms that surround us. In Hello World she lifts the lid on their inner workings, demonstrates their power, exposes their limitations, and examines whether they really are an improvement on the humans they are replacing. more...

Teacher, do your students have
access to computers?Do they have iPads or Laptops in Lessons?

Whether your students each have a TabletPC, a Surface or a Mac,
this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).

Extension 1

Extension 2

When written as a word or words, what is the smallest positive whole number containing all of the vowels?

One Thousand And Five

Extension 3

When written as a word or words, what is the only prime number that does not contain the letter 'e'?

Two

Extension 4

When written as a word or words, what is the largest positive whole number that does not contain the letter 'o'?

999

Extension 5

When written as a word or words, what is the largest positive whole number that does not contain the letter 'i'?

777,777

Extension 6

When written as a word or words, what is the smallest positive whole number that contains the letter 'b'?

One Billion

The solutions to this and other Transum puzzles, exercises and activities are available here when you are signed in to your Transum subscription account. If you do not yet have an account and you are a teacher, tutor or parent you can apply for one here.

If you enjoyed this type of number puzzle you might like to look at the June 2016 Transum Newsletter which featured a similar challenge as the puzzle of the month.